The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

by Daniel Defoe

so as in one of them to put my things on board, and in theother to have agreed with the captain; I say, two of these shipsmiscarried, viz. one was taken by the Algerines, and the other was castaway on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people drowned except three;so that in either of those vessels I had been made miserable, and inwhich most, it was hard to say.

  Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom Icommunicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to go to sea; buteither to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay toRochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land toParis, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid, and so all theway by land through France.

  In a word, I was so prepossessed against my going by sea at all, exceptfrom Calais to Dover, that I resolved to travel all the way by land;which, as I was not in haste, and did not value the charge, was by muchthe pleasanter way; and to make it more so, my old captain brought anEnglish gentleman, the son of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing totravel with me; after which, we picked up two who were English, andmerchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, the last going toParis only; so that we were in all six of us, and five servants, the twomerchants and the two Portuguese contenting themselves with one servantbetween two, to save the charge; and as for me, I got an English sailorto travel with me as a servant, besides my man Friday, who was too mucha stranger to be capable of supplying the place of a servant uponthe road.

  In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being all verywell mounted and armed, we made a little troop whereof they did me thehonour to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest man, asbecause I had two servants, and indeed was the original of thewhole journey.

  As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so shall I troubleyou with none of my land journals. But some adventures that happened tous in this tedious and difficult journey, I must not omit.

  When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us strangers to Spain, werewilling to stay some time to sec the court of Spain, and to see what wasworth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we hastenedaway, and set out from Madrid about the middle of October. But when wecame to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed at several towns on theway, with an account that so much snow was fallen on the French side ofthe mountains, that several travellers were obliged to come back toPampeluna, after having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on.

  When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me thathad been always used to a hot climate, and indeed to countries where wecould scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable; nor,indeed, was it more painful than it was surprising: to come but ten daysbefore out of the Old Castile, where the weather was not only warm, butvery hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenees mountains, sovery keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endangerbenumbing and perishing of our fingers and toes, was very strange.

  Poor Friday was really frighted when he saw the mountains all coveredwith snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen or felt beforein his life.

  To mend the matter, after we came to Pampeluna, it continued snowingwith so much violence, and so long, that the people said, winter wascome before its time; and the roads, which were difficult before, werenow quite impassable: in a word, the snow lay in some places too thickfor us to travel; and being not hard frozen, as is the case in northerncountries, there was no going without being in danger of being buriedalive every step. We staid no less than twenty days at Pampeluna; when(seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, forit was the severest winter all over Europe that had been known in manyyears) proposed that we should all go away to Fontarabia, and there takeshipping for Boardeaux, which was a very little voyage.

  But while we were considering this, there came in four French gentlemen,who, having been stopped on the French side of the passes, as we were onthe Spanish, had found out a guide, who traversing the country near thehead of Languedoc, had brought them over the mountains by such ways,that they were not much incommoded with the snow; and where they metwith snow in any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bearthem and their horses.

  We sent for this guide, who told us, he would undertake to carry us thesame way, with no hazard from the snow, provided we were armedsufficiently to protect us from wild beasts: for he said, upon thesegreat snows, it was frequent for some wolves to show themselves at thefoot of the mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the groundbeing covered with snow. We told him we were well enough prepared forsuch creatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind oftwo-legged wolves, which we were told we were in most danger from,especially on the French side of the mountains.

  He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the way that we wereto go: so we readily agreed to follow him; as did also twelve othergentlemen, with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as Isaid, had attempted to go, and were obliged to come back again.

  Accordingly we all set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on thefifteenth of November; and indeed I was surprised, when, instead ofgoing forward, he came directly back with us, on the same road that wecame from Madrid, above twenty miles; when having passed two rivers, andcome into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again,where the country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a sudden,turning to the left, he approached the mountains another way; and thoughit is true, the hills and the precipices looked dreadfully, yet he madeso many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, weinsensibly passed the height of the mountains, without being muchencumbered with the snow; and all on a sudden he shewed us the pleasantfruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascoigne, all green andflourishing; though indeed they were at a great distance, and we hadsome rough way to pass yet.

  We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole dayand a night, so fast, that we could not travel; but he bid us be easy,we should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that we began todescend every day, and to come more north than before; and so, dependingupon our guide, we went on.

  It was about two hours before night, when our guide being somethingbefore us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, andafter them a bear, out of a hollow way, adjoining to a thick wood. Twoof the wolves flew upon the guide, and had he been half a mile beforeus, he had been devoured indeed, before we could have helped him; one ofthem fastened upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with thatviolence, that he had not time, or not presence of mind enough, to drawhis pistol, but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My man Fridaybeing next to me, I bid him ride up, and see what was the matter. Assoon as Friday came in sight of the man, he hallooed, as loud as theother, "O master' O master!" But, like a bold fellow, rode directly upto the man, and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him inthe head.

  It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for he, havingbeen used to that kind of creature in his country, had no fear upon him,but went close up to him, and shot him as above; whereas any of us wouldhave fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps either missed thewolf, or endangered shooting the man.

  But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I, and indeed italarmed all our company, when, with the noise of Friday's pistol, weheard on both sides the dismallest howlings of wolves, and the noiseredoubled by the echo of the mountains, that it was to us as if therehad been a prodigious multitude of them; and perhaps indeed there wasnot such a few, as that we had no cause of apprehensions.

  However, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other, that had fastenedupon the horse, left him immediately, and fled, having happily fastenedupon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth, sothat he had not done him much hurt; the man, indeed, was most hurt; forthe raging creature had bit him twice, once on the arm, and the othertime a little above his knee; and he was just as it were tumbling downby the disorder of the horse, when Friday came up and shot the wolf. />
  It is easy to suppose, that at the noise of Friday's pistol we allmended our pace, and rid up as fast as the way (which was verydifficult) would give us leave, to see what was the matter. As soon aswe came clear of the trees which blinded us before, we saw plainly whathad been the case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide; thoughwe did not presently discern what kind of creature it was he had killed.

  But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprisingmanner, as that which followed between Friday and the bear, which gaveus all (though at first we were surprised and afraid for him) thegreatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature,and does not gallop as the wolf does, which is swift and light; so hehas two particular qualities, which generally are the rule of hisactions: first, as to men, who are not his proper prey, I say not hisproper prey, because though I can't say what excessive hunger might do,which was now their case, the ground being all covered with snow; yet asto men, he does